Summary: As we move into the last half of January, speculations that improved global markets in Asia will increase copper demand have mixed with expectations of an increased production outage this year, causing copper prices to continue hovering between $7,320 and $7,370 per metric ton in the London Metal Exchange. Beyond inventories, investors brace themselves for upcoming economic data coming out of China to see if their economy is growing or slowing.
In other news, the Environmental Protection Agency released a report indicating that the environmental impact of large-scale gold-copper Pebble mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay “poses too many risks to salmon and other tribal communities that have depended on them for thousands of years.” Rio Tinto, a major shareholder of Northern Dynasty Metals, has since backed out.